The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

CEYLON
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by a sort of urna on the forehead, a device
regularly used to designate divine beings in
India.
In studying these works we are struck at once
by the robust strength of both the drawing and
colouring. That the draughtsmanship was
entirely freehand becomes apparent when we
note the many corrections, not only changes in
the contours but complete alterations of the
positions of the hands of certain figures. The
swelling, nubile breasts, the tiny waist - hardly
greater than the girth of the neck - the shapely
tapered arms and exquisitely poised flower-like
hands - these are all elements of the same canon
that determined the types of physical beauty in
the wall-paintings of India proper. Here these
charms are rendered even more provocative
through their exaggeration. The resemblance of
these figures to the maidens of the Amaravati
reliefs suggests their derivation from a lost
school of Andhra painting.
If the boldness of
the drawing and the brilliance of the colours are
recognizable as typically Singhalese, the actual
physical types represented, with heavy-lidded
eyes, sharp aquiline noses, and full lips, may be
taken as direct reflexions of actual Singhalese
types.
A rather distinctive technical feature of the
Sigiriya paintings is the method of drawing the
noses. Of these there are two distinct types : in
one of these conceptual presentations the nose
is represented in profile, although the face may
be in three-quarters view; the second method
shows the nose in three-quarters view, with the
299. Sigiriya, wall-painting of apsaras